The processes of modern industry, through its introduction of machinery and the consequent development of its vast modern enterprises, took the tools of his trade from the personal hands of the laborer into company ownership, stripped him of all but his bare power to work, and cut him off from the former close personal relationship with his employer. So the laboring man found himself again an isolated individual, this time in the competitive markets of labor, where he fought alone for his existence against the cold impersonal organizations which bought his services in the cheapest market and discarded them at will. And as once long ago he found his salvation and opportunity for development through combination with his fellows, so now he again learned that his future could be secured only through combined effort. Thus came organized labor to protect with force if necessary the human rights of its members and to assure their equal opportunity for development in the progress of the race. We thus see that this organization of labor with its potential power to fight was but a natural logical step in the evolution of modern industry--as natural and as necessary as were the organizations and combinations of capital. Both are the products of evolution. And as is generally true, the application of the laws of evolution to individual cases often caused hardship and distress and even loss of life, but without changing their inexorable course in the purpose of progress. It was the accepted philosophy of the time that labor was a commodity to be taken to any market at the will of the laborer and sold to the highest bidder, who was likewise free to buy labor at the lowest figure and to employ it only at his pleasure. The rapid increase in the size of enterprises having eliminated the personal relationship between the employer and his men without finding anything to replace it, it was natural that labor became little more than a chattel and that all consideration of the human equation was forgotten in the excitement and keen competition of managing these enterprises of such novel magnitude and unknown potentialities. Meantime public opinion failed to appreciate that the welfare and social development of these laborers was a matter of vital concern to the community, and that the rights and responsibilities of the management of these big concerns were equally matters of grave importance to community welfare. In short, public opinion had to be taught that the community is a party to industry, and must be concerned with how industry conducts its affairs.